About ANZMP (Australia New Zealand Metadata Parser)

ANZMP is an online service, for members of the Eco Companion catalogue,
to validate geospatial metadata documents that purport to conform to the
ANZMETA Document Type Definition. The DTD
defines the structure and content of dataset descriptions in Australia and
New Zealand.

The maintenance of geographic dataset descriptions is enabled by
retrieving and processing SGML/XML metadata documents. The parser will
validate the document to ensure that its structure is sound and that
certain content is valid. Presentation documents are generated in HTML and
plain-text format. If the member chooses to publish the document, then it
is added to the public collection and indexed by the search service.

The ANZMP parser will ensure that the SGML/XML document conforms to the
DTD by assessing that the structure of the document is proper and that all
required elements are present. The parser will also validate the content
of many elements in accordance with the
ANZLIC Guidelines for
Core Metadata Elements.

Dataset descriptions that are managed by Eco Companion members are
guaranteed to have sound structure and consistent presentation. The
documents are published using digital library
management techniques, so enabling them to be readily discovered on
the network.

Some Eco Companion members are silent authors
... meaning that they do not publish through the Eco Companion catalogue.
Rather, they manage documents in their private space, then transfer the
set of consistent documents to their own server. Some organisations manage
their dataset descriptions at their own site, and use ANZMP to validate
their documents to ensure that the structure and content is correct. The
batch processing facilities
enable you to specify a list of datasets. ANZMP will retrieve each
metadata document, validate it, produce presentation documents (optionally
insert your own header and footer), and advise you by email when the
process is complete. This enables processing of dataset descriptions that
are output from other systems in the ANZMETA structured XML format.
Examples of these other systems are ANZLIC Metadata Entry Tool (MET)
for Windows or even from a simple text editor or a capable word processor.

Our parser is similar to the 'mp'
metadata parser, which contributes to the US
FGDC assisted geospatial data
Clearinghouse.
It is also similar to the W3C HTML
validator, which ensures that your web documents can be consistently
viewed.

We have built our ANZMP service based on the wonderful 'nsgmls'
SGML/XML parser.

Both the 'mp' and 'ANZMP' parsers will validate geospatial dataset
descriptions to ensure that they conform to the necessary standards. Upon
that base, interoperable spatial data directories can be built.